[Unlocking the Last One]

Haru and his group were now in Ersune Castle, along with the rest of his classmates and their respective companions. All waiting for the king to arrive as the grand mage tries to entertain them to the best of his abilities.

As they all waited for the king, Haru looked around the room, mildly annoyed just seeing his classmates, even if they were all just to hear what the king’s going to announce.

Haru: How long is that guy going to take, I’d rather not be around most of these people.

Elleth: Just bear with it for a while, Haru. We’ll get some ice cream after this, don’t worry.

Haru: I’m not a kid dammit! But…I could go for some right now.

Touka: I’m not a kid, huh?

The time flew by, and he still wasn’t there. Everyone in the throne room was getting nervous, did something happen to the king? They all wondered what was taking him.

Haru was at his breaking point, how much longer did he need to wait? Though this didn’t show through on his face, what did was just a look of boredom.

This led to him doing strange things to combat the boredom as they all waited for the king to arrive. Like hugging Touka from behind without warning, at her expense.

Touka: W-what are you doing, why me as well? Wouldn’t my sister be better?

Haru: Then she wouldn’t let go, at least with you I can come and go whenever I want at least. Plus, we’re best friends right? This shouldn’t be that weird.

Touka: B-but we’re in publ-

Haru: So it’s ok in private? I see then.

Touka: D-don’t twist my wor-

The king finally arrives, the now exhausted grand mage blew a sigh of relief along with everybody else in the room. He sat on his throne, with a look that already knew what they were going to ask.

Marle: I’m sure you’re all curious why I was late, well….I overslept that’s all!

He laughed as everyone in the room had a look of disappointment. With the grand mage needing to apologize to the people in the room on the king’s behalf.

Marle: In actuality, I studied the information Velia left me. Boy, you’re in for a disaster at my hands.

He thought to himself as he stared in Haru’s direction, the latter not even noticing it.

Marle: Alright then, I’ve called you here to announce something as you already know from the letter sent out yesterday.

The crowd in front of him began some small whispers, trying to figure out what he was about to say.

Marle: It has come to my attention that apparently Karnatus, the cult who wants to summon the demon lord, has several bases scattered throughout our very own kingdom.

Gasps echo through the crowd as the king speaks to them with urgency, or what felt like it, in his voice.

Marle: Following on, I want all of you to take these bases down. We’ll be splitting you into attack groups to attack them at the same time. Though we’ll be giving you a week to yourselves before we start the simultaneous raid.

Grand Mage: We suggest you use that time for training, preferably. But, you are all free to do whatever till a week from now.

Marle: Well said, now then, you may all take your leave.

As Haru’s group, and the rest, leave the castle. They each discuss what the king said. Raiding the cult’s bases a week from now? That was in most of their thoughts as they left the castle.

Touka: We’ve got a week to ourselves, after that we’ll be raiding the cult’s base. What are we going to do?

Haru: Train, that’s what. I’d rather not risk being a casualty during the raid, honestly.

Touka looked at him, surprised to hear that coming from him. Though she was relieved since he was being sensible, albeit slightly selfish in his phrasing.

At the same time Airi recalled what happened last night. She could guess that Haru either wanted to learn to control that berserk form, or find an alternative so that he didn’t need to use it.

Touka: You’re right, shall we start no-

Airi: Dear!

Airi clings onto Haru whispering something into his ear with a smile on her face, cutting Touka off as Elleth giggled a bit.

In reality, this was her telling Haru what had happened when he blacked out, the terrifying power of his berserk form. She had told him a little bit about it last night, but now she went to tell him in more depth.

She told him how he resembled the literal Grim Reaper, down to the cloak and scythe, along with the snake-like skull he sent after her and Grimmwald among other things. He was genuinely surprised at how powerful this form was, but wasn’t dumb enough to want to use it often. That and he had no idea how it even activated in the first place. All he remembered was blacking out after all. Emotional? Survival? Hidden split-personality? All of those and more were on the table as possible answers. But the more he thought about it, the more it just made him paranoid and fearful.

But to Touka and Elleth, all they could see was a nice couple walking together, ignorant of what they were talking about in private.

Thankfully they weren’t going to stay in the dark for long, as they had already planned to tell them about that form.

They were going to have to anyway since they were all planning to train for the remaining week before the raid.

The four of them stopped by an ice cream stand on their way back. Taking a bit of a break from walking back home.

Haru: So good! I needed this right now.

Touka: Right? Reminds me of that one place from when we were kids.

Haru: That place, we frequented it until we got sent here right?

Elleth and Airi joined up with them as well, after getting their orders. After a little while they were back to walking home.

Along the way they were each caught up peering into a shop, window shopping more or less. Each needing the other three to pull them back before they made a purchase.

As the four of them finally were back home, they took a little break before heading out to the house’s yard. Luckily they were well out of the way of the town and had a sizable space to fight in.

It was a three versus one, Haru had left his coat inside the house so he was just in his short-sleeve black dress shirt.

He had his signature shark-teeth like sword out as Touka, Elleth, and Airi had their respective blades out.

Haru: Our first day of training, I’m looking forward to all of this.

Touka: That’s odd coming from you, but I share that feeling.

Haru: Then…Let’s begin! Destroyer!

His skill {Fleet} activates, mechanical ams sprouted from his back, the 100mm guns and quintuple homing torpedoes each attached to one of these arms.

There were four of these arms, two guns and two torpedo launchers on each side. The anti-air guns were on his back coming from behind his shoulders.

The look reminded Touka of a mobile game that she and him used to play before getting sent here. She’s already seen it before, but just now realised what it reminded her of.

Warships turned into cute girls, that was what that skill resembled. But instead of a cute girl, it was Haru with a large grin on his face, ready to fight.

As the three of them were about to launch an attack, he fired off his guns, causing the ground in front of them to explode causing the dust to puff up and become a smokescreen for him.

Disoriented and blinded by the attack, they didn’t notice Haru coming in from behind.

Bringing his sword down on one of them, it would have caused major damage had it not been Elleth he struck.

Her arm was partially transformed into her dragon form, He quickly backed off to attack from a different area while they were still blinded by the dust and dirt that were kicked up.

Elleth: Stay on guard, you two. He could come out of anywhere while we’re still blinded by all this dirt.

Airi: Right, should we huddle up the-

Explosions could be heard as small planes flew over them, either shooting with machine guns or dropping tiny bombs. Each managed to defend using magic or their skills.

Haru: What’s wrong? Can’t handle my personal air force?

The kicked up dirt finally clears, they could finally see Haru once again. Though this time he has what seemed to be flight decks mounted on the robotic arms.

Thankfully there were only two of these, seemingly replacing the 100mm guns and torpedoes. Along with that, the anti-air guns were missing from his back.

Touka: When did he…

Haru: Awesome right? Air-superiority granted to me using Carrier.

Airi rushes towards him, wielding both her rapier and a katana created from blood magic, both of which were coated in hellfire.

She alternated between the rapid thrusts of her rapier and the heavy slashes from her katana. This exposed the flaw of that part of his skill, the defenselessness when he’s launched his planes.

He was barely able to block and defend against her relentless and fast attacks.

Haru: You were always one to take advantage of someone’s weakness.

Airi: My, is that a compliment?

Haru: Probably, but you’re forgetting one thing.

He activates {Swift Demise} drastically increasing his speed and strength, it was now his turn to go on the offensive, heavy strike after heavy strike, using his flight decks as shields to block hers.

This also got Airi going, coating herself in both her blood magic and hellfire. The pair were now on par with each other, their blows becoming more powerful as they fought.

At the same time Touka and Elleth were still being attacked by those planes, the gunfire and bombs were difficult to defend against.

They were in a fantasy world after all, dealing with machine guns and the like were way out of their reach.

Elleth: How are we even supposed to fight these?

Touka: That’s what I’m trying to figure out. How was he even to get a hold of these things in this world?

They were inside a self-repairing bubble created by Elleth’s skill {Virus Series} The sounds of gunfire and explosions slowly died down, though just as they thought they were safe Airi crashed through the bubble. Having been knocked back by Haru into them.

Airi: Damn it…

Touka: Hey, what happened back there?

Airi: That!

The three of them looked to see Haru with one of his arms in that berserk form’s bone armor. As tendrils of black bones burst out of the ground and his back.

{Fleet} was forcefully deactivated once more, and in its place {Skeletal Master} ran wild, demonic even.

He screamed out in terror as it took over once more, his eyes dulling again as the black bones crawl throughout his body, forming the rest of the armor once again.

Each of the tendril that came out of the ground and his back moved with such power and precision as if they were their own beings, it was surreal.

Elleth and Touka wondered what was happening while Airi was getting herself ready to fight that monster once more.

Airi: Little sister, Elleth, help me out will you?

Touka: Sure, but what is that? Why are his bones black?

Airi: That’s the Grim Reaper, if you think that’s still Haru, you’re a fool.

The two didn’t really get what she was saying, but were determined to help her out regardless.

Elleth transformed into her full hybrid form between her normal dragon form and her human form, extending her shortsword into that of a claymore along the way using her virus.

Meanwhile Touka activated {Boost}, it was the first time she used it since she had unlocked it.

The skill allows her to boost her base stats by tenfold for a short period, after which the skill will either automatically deactivate or deactivate at her will.

Airi got up, coating her body with blood and hellfire once more. The trio gripping their respective swords tightly as they rush towards the out of control Haru.

Elleth was the first in, launching a point blank Draconian Howl right at him, blowing him back quite a bit as Airi and Touka immediately followed up by slashing and attempting to stab him using their swords, one attacking from the front and the other from the back.

The two sisters backed off immediately as Elleth rushed in, this time infecting a part of his bone armor with one of her viruses, after which, she got out of the way before detonating it, causing a sizable explosion.

Just as the three thought it was over, the snake-like skull cut right through the smoke, seeing that Airi immediately rushed in since she already knew where to cut it.

But she also knew he wasn’t going to let her do that again so easily, so she hoped the other two would know as she takes it upon herself to fight Haru directly.

While she dealt with him, Touka and Elleth were having a hard time with the snake-like skull. It was a bit too fast and wild for them to get a hit in, they were going to need to slow it down or put it to a stop somehow.

Touka: Elleth, do you have anything that’ll slow it down?

Elleth: I don’t think, wait, now that I think about it…

Touka: That’s a yes right? I’ll lead it to you then.

She runs off to lure it towards her as Elleth debates whether this is the time to use it again.

Touka: Elleth! Get ready.

She returns, with the snake following closely behind her, running with all her might to get it to the dragon girl without causing damage to herself.

Elleth: Ah, fine. I told myself not to use it again, but, here we go Rot Virus.

Touka jumps out of the way as the skull goes right for Elleth, hitting her hand, it infects the skull with a virus that rots it away into dust, spreading along the spinal column it was connected to, the rotting getting slower and slower as it climbed it, before stopping entirely.

Both of them were genuinely surprised, Elleth about how it actually worked as she thought, and Touka having found out her, rightfully so, hidden technique.

They continue to fight him, pouring everything they had into their attacks, backing each other up along the way, it was there that Airi noticed that he didn’t even use any powerful attacks of his own.

Was Haru holding back from within and helping them free him? Or could it be something else?

She thought as the three of them charged up their swords and got in close before bringing them all down on him.

It worked, the armor disappeared once more, Touka caught Haru before he fell to the floor as they sighed in relief.

Haru: Again? Looks like it put you three through the ringer.

He woke up shortly after, getting back on his feet, struggling a bit before regaining balance.

Elleth: So Haru, what happened? Airi said something about a Grim Reaper?

Haru: I don’t really know much, just what Airi’s told me, but it’s what I can describe as a “berserk mode”. I end up blacking out and it’s like something else takes over as the armor forms around my body.

Touka: Do you know what causes it?

Haru: Nope, not at all. It’s a ticking time bomb, only if I didn’t know where the timer was I guess. In any case we should stop here for now, right? You’re all tired after fighting, well me too, kind of.

Though in the back of his mind, as he went inside the house with the others, he wondered, what if these three couldn’t defeat him, what if he did something he couldn’t fix or make up for.

What then, he’d just be stuck inside his own head, reliving someone else’s memories as his real body goes on a rampage, as far as he knew he had no way to call for help while stuck in there.

He would just be a wandering beast, trying to find it’s next prey,

There was no guarantee that he’d be saved even if he was defeated in that form, even with the knowledge that the girls, especially Airi, freed him already from that form.

If it was someone else who didn’t know him, he likely would’ve either died or it would’ve been too late to save him. It was scarier than any monster or enemy in his opinion.

Even as he layed in bed, these thoughts, along with what the voice told him that one night, lingered in his head. Struggling to go to sleep as Airi kept clinging to him in her sleep.

Day second, they were back at it, Haru was in his Cruiser form, firing off his guns nearby and right at them, before fighting them head on with his sword.

So far, there were no signs of that form coming back yet again as they continued to spar with each other, though it was more of an actual fight with them mostly going all out against each other.

All of them were on edge as they fought with each other. With the whole incident yesterday and what Airi had told them last night, they were all very anxious.

The fact that Haru had that much power, power that most people would describe as evil, cruel, demonic even.

It was terrifying, if one thing went wrong, if he went in that form and they weren’t able to stop him, then it could be much worse than whatever the cult was planning. Especially since he had absolutely no control over it whatsoever.

Despite this, Touka found herself locked in combat with Haru, his strategy was simple, get in close and hit with heavy strikes before backing off and firing his guns.

Touka: Damn…

This was quite effective since this gave her almost no time to react to his attacks, only managing to land a couple of hits on him every now and again.

Haru: What’s wrong? Can’t get a hit in?

He says with a smug look on his face and in a mocking tone, greatly annoying Touka. Trying to lighten the mood for the both of them, though more for him as the thoughts he had the day before were still fresh.

She then activated {Boost} and rushed in towards him, attempting once more to get a hit in with her swords.

When she finally got in close to him, she was met by Haru’s gauntlet-covered fist. She managed to block it using one of her swords but was still knocked back quite a bit.

As she tried to get back her footing, Haru jumped towards her, his sword raised up ready to slash at her.

This was where she brought out her trump card, the blades of her swords fired out from their hilt, connected by chains, right at Haru.

Success, straight through his arms, she quickly followed it up by slamming him right into the ground, knocking him out in the process.

Touka: Serves you right, idiot.

At the same time Elleth was facing off against Airi, she was in her partially transformed form.

Airi: It’s not that often you get to fight a dragon, so you better stop holding back, Miss Elleth.

She attacks her using her rapier and katana setup, her speed being her biggest advantage against the dragon girl. Though most of her attacks don’t seem to pierce through her scales, even with her blades coated in hellfire.

She wanted to get stronger to keep Haru in check if need be, to reassure herself that she had the capability to bring him back. She knew she had the potential since she and Grimmwald fought him that night.

Elleth: You’re right, then how about it? I go all out right now?

Airi: Then you have my gratitude.

Elleth raises up her sword, charging it up before bringing it down on Airi. Luckily she backed off, before blasting Elleth with a large stream of hellfire from her mouth.

Imitating the classic depiction of a dragon right in front of the actual dragon girl. Was she taunting Elleth, or was it something else?

Out of the smoke caused by the fire, Elleth lunges out going into a series of fast slashes with her sword, almost overwhelming Airi as she just goes wild with her sword upon her.

Elleth: Are you rethinking asking me to go all in?

Airi: Not at all!

The two kept at it for a good while, trading blow after blow, hit after hit. Neither losing steam, or at least what seemed like it.

All with a smile on both of their faces, aside from making each other stronger through combat experience, they also formed stronger bonds, developing a trust with the other as they continued to fight.

The pair very clearly enjoyed their fight, not wanting to disappoint the other, and themselves, as they pulled out every technique and trump card they had at the moment.

Even unveiling new ones that they wanted to save for special occasions or situations, ended up shown off during this fight.

A little later, when they were all done, Haru woke up in the middle of Elleth healing him up on the couch, one of the first things he saw was a smug grin from Touka, annoying him just like he did to her earlier.

Meanwhile, inside a certain luxurious mansion, a room walls covered in wine racks, each filled with wine that has yet to be drunk by her.

Velia: It’ll just be you and me, little one.

She has an excited look on her face while staring at one of the bottles, her intentions clear as she wastes the night on the bottles Marle secretly sent her.

Velia was yet again indulging herself to some wine inside her own private quarters within the mansion.

Taking a massive glug directly from the bottle, she was cut short after she heard a couple of knocks on her door. Upon further inspection, it was one of the cult members that were working under her.

She hesitates, wanting to enjoy it a bit more before doing her job, but decides to answer the door regardless for the sake of morale.

Cult Member: Lady Velia, King Marle wishes to speak with you via communication magic.

Velia: Ohh, very well.

The cult member sets up the communication magic channel, setting the orb needed for it on top of the table before leaving the room to let the two talk in private.

Velia: Did you need anything?

Marle: I just wanted to check up, you’ve got your troops ready, right?

Velia: still using that? you’re making us sound like a military y’know.

Marle: At this point it’s hard to distinguish, especially with that outfit you’re wearing. In any case, you’ve got them ready now right?

Velia: Don’t worry, they’re mostly ready right now. We’ve got some days left to work out any issues if need be.

Marle: Good, then I trust that you’ll be able to take out your beloved?

Velia: Yep, you said it yourself yesterday. I’m the best person because I know all of his tricks, well, something to that degree at least.

Marle: It’s always good to double check. I’ll be ending the call now, I have to go check on the other clowns.

The call ends and Velia goes back to chugging her wine. Enjoying herself before she has to rally the cult members under her right outside the room.

Velia: Ahhh, that really hits the spot. Thank god I managed to convince him to send more to me after I took a bottle.

After a while of drinking herself silly, she awoke from a nap that she took, seemingly having fallen asleep whilst holding a bottle, fixing herself up before heading out to meet her lovely subordinates.

She makes her way out to the main hall of the mansion, where she had told all of them to meet in. When she arrives inside of the room the cult members stopped what they were doing at the time and faced towards her.

Velia: I see everything’s going smoothly here, in any case I want all of you to go all out four days from now. Crush them with all your might, even until your last breaths.

As she finishes her sentence the crowd goes wild, the faith and trust these people had in her and the cult as a whole was immense just by judging the crowd itself.

This garnered a smile on her face, before fading quickly into a more serious expression.

Velia: But, I will say this. If any of you so much as lay a finger on Kanzaki Haru, then you will become my pelt, got it?

The crowd freezes up, understanding what she means just by the serious tone of her voice. Their light party continues, while she returns to her private quarters to drink to her heart’s content.